{"id":23552,"date":"2012-07-11T07:56:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T11:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=23552"},"modified":"2012-07-11T08:38:35","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T12:38:35","slug":"christian-council-firm-against-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/07\/christian-council-firm-against-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Christian Council Firm Against Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Christian Council President Rev. Dr. Ranford Patterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision by a group of pastors to sit down with numbers bosses and hear about the \u2018benefits\u2019 of illegal gambling, was like religious men deciding to meet with drug dealers and prostitutes to hear their views on why their nefarious trades should be legalized, according to Christian Council President Rev. Dr. Ranford Patterson.<\/p>\n

Patterson said legalizing gambling would likely be followed by a push to legalize gay marriages.<\/p>\n

He said the Christian Council has no interest in meeting with the bosses of numbers houses, and will remain firm in its position that it is diametrically opposed to legalizing the operations.<\/p>\n

He strongly rejected recent comments made by Reverend Philip McPhee of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

McPhee said about 20 church leaders who recently met with the owners of web caf\u00e9s were \u2018sensitized\u2019 to the contributions these operations are making to the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t support pastors talking about all the benefits and all these people who are working at these numbers houses,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is illegal and they are working at these numbers houses then they have illegal jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting with the numbers bosses took place as preparations continue for a referendum on gambling, which Prime Minister Perry Christie said will take place before the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with The Nassau Guardian, the Christian Council president said, \u201cIf you sit down with drug dealers they would tell you that they make positive contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are drug dealers who buy computers for the community and do other things for the community. Do we make what they do legal as well? Where do we stop? When do we stop with this thing?<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we continue with everyone who breaks the law; we pat them on the back and tell them it\u2019s ok? Where do we stop? We need to enforce the law. If the law says it\u2019s illegal to do what they\u2019re doing, then let\u2019s shut them down and wait for the referendum and if it passes then do what needs to be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the Bahamian people decide… that we do not want this gambling, this numbers racket in our, what is the police going to do? What is the government going to do? Are they going to be able to enforce it? Are they going to be wasting our time by saying they\u2019re going to put it to the people?\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Nassau Guardian on Thursday, McPhee said, \u201cWe got a very positive input of what the web companies are all about, what they are doing and how they contribute in many ways to the benefit of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us were not aware of those contributions. One web company has given over $1 million to fund various regattas and cultural events such as Junkanoo, and has sponsored many summer programs, feeding programs and clothing programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these men have been very active in giving a lot to sustain other various programs. Those were articulated to the pastors which brought about a sense of sensitizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although McPhee said several Christian Council members were at the meeting, Patterson said the Christian Council has no interest in being sensitized to the contributions of the numbers houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are opposed to gambling, the numbers racket, we are opposed to it,\u201d Patterson stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hear persons talk about the benefits or the contributions that have been made by these numbers houses, we\u2019re talking about what\u2019s coming in through the front door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we take into consideration what will have to come out as a result of what we are doing. [The Department of] Social Services is already over stretched. We are going to have to continue to pump millions of dollars into Social Services because persons are irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether gambling is a sin, and whether there is biblical evidence to support this, Patterson said, \u201cI am not taking this from a religious or biblical perspective. I am strictly taking this from a socio-economic position for our people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the number of people in our country who are hurting and using this numbers racket as a savior and in reality it\u2019s not a savior; it\u2019s literally killing families. It\u2019s killing communities. It\u2019s killing the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked the question the other day, where do these number bosses live? Is there a numbers racket on Paradise Island?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is none in any gated community. They are all in the heart of our inner-city communities, the majority of them. What does that say?\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson was also asked whether the church will be able to match the $1.5 million the coalition of web shop owners has said it will spend on an education and community development campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need $1.5 million,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the Holy Spirit and we have God. That is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candia Dames
\nThe Nassau Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christian Council has no interest in meeting with the numbers bosses and stands strong against gambling, saying “it\u2019s not a savior… It\u2019s killing communities. It\u2019s killing the country.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[153,139,133,137,307,171,163],"class_list":["post-23552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-business-2","tag-church","tag-community","tag-gambling","tag-illegal","tag-religion-2","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}